Various global or local communications networks (the Internet, the World Wide Web, local area networks and the like) offer a user a vast amount of information. The information includes a multitude of contextual topics, such as but not limited to, news and current affairs, maps, company information, financial information and resources, traffic information, games and entertainment related information. Users use a variety of client devices (desktop, laptop, notebook, smartphone, tablets and the like) to have access to rich content (like images, audio, video, animation, and other multimedia content from such networks).
Generally speaking, a given user can access a resource via a communications network by two principle means. The given user can access a particular resource directly, either by typing an address of the resource (typically an URL or Universal Resource Locator, such as www.webpage.com) or by clicking a link in an e-mail or in another web resource. Alternatively, the given user may conduct a search using a search engine to locate a resource of interest. The latter is particularly suitable in those circumstances, where the given user knows a topic of interest, but does not know the exact address of the resource she is interested in.
There are numerous search engines available to the user. Some of them are considered to be general purpose search engines (such as Yandex™, Google™ Yahoo!™ and the like). Others are considered to be vertical search engines—i.e. search engines dedicated to a particular topic of search—such as Momondo™ search engine dedicated to searching flights.
Irrespective of which search engine is used, the search engine is generally configured to receive a search query from a user, to perform a search and to return a ranked search results page (SERP) to the user.
For example, looking at FIG. 1, a given user uses the Yandex™ search engine to search for a hockey team. The user may have entered a first search query 502 (“Montreal Canadiens”). The user is presented with a SERP to which a screen shot is depicted in FIG. 1 as a screen shot 100, the SERP depicted at the screen shot 100 being implemented in accordance with known techniques.
Within the screen shot 100, the user is presented with several conventionally-known fields. Amongst these fields are: a query interface 102, and a search results interface 104. The general purpose of the query interface 102 is to enable the user (not depicted) to enter her query or a “search string” (which in this case is “Montreal Canadiens”). The general purpose of the search results interface 104 is to provide search results that are responsive to the user query entered into the query interface 102.
Within the search results interface 104, there is shown a first SERP 106, the first SERP 106 having, amongst other, four search results, namely a first search result 108, which is associated with a Wikipedia™ web resource, a second search result 110 associated with a National Hockey League™ web resource, a third search result 112 also associated with a Wikipedia™ web resource, and a fourth search result 114 associated with a Twitter™ web resource. How the search results are displayed is generally known in the art and will not be discussed at length here. Suffice it to say, as an example only, the first search result 108 comprises a title 116, a uniform resource locator (URL) 118, a snippet 120, and a favicon 122 associated with the Wikipedia™ web resource.
In another example, with reference to FIG. 2, let it be assumed that the user has typed in (using the query interface 102) a second search query 504 (“habs”, which is a nickname of the hockey team Montreal Canadiens™). The user is presented with a SERP of which a screen shot is depicted in FIG. 2, generally depicted at 200. Within the screen shot 200, the user is presented with several conventionally-known fields. Amongst these fields are: the query interface 102 and the search results interface 104. Within the search results interface 104 there is shown a second SERP 206, the second SERP 206 having, amongst other, three search results, namely a first search result 208 associated with a Wikipedia™ web resource, a second search result 210 associated with a web resource associated with amazinghabs.com, and a third search result 212 associated a web resource associated with allabouthockey.com. The first search result 208 comprises a title 216, a URL 218, a snippet 220, and a favicon 222 associated with Wikipedia™.
Needless to say, a communication network connection must be maintained between the client device and the search engine server in order for the search engine server to receive queries and transmit the search results to the client device. As such, in certain circumstances where there is no connection (or there is a high latency associated with slow(er) connection), the search engine may not effectively receive the inputted search query, or effectively transfer the generated SERP to the client device for display, which can cause user dissatisfaction, to say the least.
Generally speaking, there exist a few computer-based approaches to generating an offline SERP on the client device. For example, a simple approach is to use a cache of a browser application of the client device. However, the use of the cache is limited to previously submitted search queries and may not be used if the inputted search query is different from the previously submitted search query.
US 2016/0055203 provides various techniques for offline record selection to avoid negatively impacting latency. In one embodiment, a method includes receiving a search query from a client device via a network and in response to the received search query, determining if the received search query corresponds to one or more records of offline content. The records of offline content are previously determined and prior to receiving the search query. In response to determining that the received search query corresponds to at least one record of offline content, the method includes retrieving and providing the at least one record of offline content to the client device via the network.
US2016/0055259 provides a method and system for presenting content summary of search results. In one example, an input associated with a search query is received from a user. One or more search results are fetched based on the search query. A summary of content with respect to at least one of the one or more search results is obtained. A search result page is presented to the user as a response to the input. The search results page includes the one or more search results and at least part of the summary of content.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,707,142 provides a method and system that perform an offline search for an article. In one aspect of the invention, the aspect includes receiving a search query, determining whether the search query has been previously entered, if the search query has been previously entered, retrieving a previously stored result set, determining whether a previously stored result set meets at least one condition, and if the previously stored result set meets at least one condition, outputting the previously stored result set.